Tragic Princess Diana to dominate first ‘drop’ of The Crown’s final series as Netflix delves deep into final days
THE creators of The Crown have given fans a sneak peak at the sixth and final season of the Netflix show.
The royal drama kicks off in 1997 with the relationship between Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed blossoming just before both are killed in the fateful car crash in Paris.
Meanwhile her sons – Princes William and Harry – are at home with their father, Prince Charles, in Scotland.
The producers have painstakingly recreated the famous image of the Prince of Wales, played by Dominic West, and the two boys by a river in the Highlands.
And the red dress being seen worn by Elizabeth Debicki, who plays Diana, is an almost exact replica of the same outfit the princess once wore in July 1997.
The actress says of her character: “I think it’s a really unique challenge as an actor, to portray those days. I really just trusted in Peter’s emotional blueprint that he created for us to follow…
It’s his interpretation and I think it made emotional sense to me, so I clung to that. Because, obviously, it’s devastating and it’s fraught and we can never know.”
She was visiting Northwick Park & St. Mark’s Hospital In Harrow, Middlesex, England, in her last official daytime engagement before she was killed.
Both Dominic West (Prince Charles) and Imelda Staunton (Queen Elizabeth II) are at ease with reprising their roles for a second season.
Imelda said: “I’ve been living with her for a long time so, if anything, I felt more comfortable this time. I love her stillness and her ability to not be thrown by everything that must have constantly – throughout her whole life – gone on around her.”
This year The Crown will be delivered in two chunks – the first four episodes will drop on Netflix on November 16, the other six will drop on December 14.
It’s already been revealed that in later episode of the final season, which covers the years up to 2005, Princess Diana will appear as a ghost and express her appreciation after Prince Charles, now King Charles III, sobs over her body in a Parisian morgue.
Dominic says of his character: “I think he’s got real sadness to him and real compassion and what’s great about The Crown is that you see these public figures in private.
I suspect in private he’s quite emotional, well that’s the way I played him anyway… I think, hopefully, what comes out is compassionate but relatively well balanced.
“I talked to a lot of people who have met him because he’s met a lot of people, he’s met probably more than anyone except the Queen and Prince Philip. Almost everyone has extremely warm, kind things to say about him.”
Salim Daw, who plays Mohamed Al Fayed, has a close relationship with his character and says he “loves him.”
“I adore this character. I love him so much and I enjoy portraying him because I love him. In this series, he is so human and he’s so colourful.”
The actor continued: “He’s hard sometimes, very hard, funny, like a child – with his son he’s sometimes very, very hard but he has plenty of love for his son and the audience will see that and will feel exactly what I’m talking about.”
Playing his son, Dodi Fayed, Khalid Abdalla expressed that it’s “been the honour” of his life to be part of this project.